The Second Sex

"First published in 1949, The Second Sex is a landmark in the history of feminism. Of all the writing that emerged from the existentialist movement, Simone de Beauvoir s groundbreaking study of women has had the most extensive and enduring impact. It is at once a scholarlywork of anthropology and sociology, of biology and psychoanalysis, from the pen of a writer and novelist of penetrating imaginative power. The Second Sex stands, six decades after its first appearance, as the first landmark in the modern feminist upsurge that transformed perceptions of the social relationship of man and womankind in our time. In this new translation to mark the 60th anniversary of publication, Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier have produced the first integral translation, reinstating a third of the original work. In this new translation to mark the 60th anniversary of publication, Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier have produced the first integral translation, reinstating a third of the original work."

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Required reading for anyone who believes in the equality of the sexes, The Second Sex is the crowning text of second wave feminism

Reviews

"A masterpiece" Vogue

"Discovering The Second Sex was like an explosion in my skull, shattering illusions bred in a conventional fifties childhood...Re-reading the book now I realise how much of it is still entirely relevant, and that (despite advances) women are as much in need of liberation as ever" -- Bel Mooney

"De Beauvoir was not just a genius as a theorist. She dared to live it. Challenging conventional marriage and sexual practice, she used her own experience to explore the emotional costs of jealousy, attachment, monogamy, bohemianism, sexuality, of love" -- Susie Orbach

"A fine piece of work, a lucid translation" Independent "A fresh, much expanded, more intelligible book which repays re-reading by adherents of the old version, and cries out for attention from young women who have not been exposed to this most powerful of feminist thinkers" Irish Times

Author description

Simone de Beauvoir was born in Paris in 1908. In 1929 she became the youngest person ever to obtain the agregation in philosophy at the Sorbonne, placing second to Jean-Paul Sartre. She taught at the lycees at Marseille and Rouen from 1931-1937, and in Paris from 1938-1943. After the war, she emerged as one of the leaders of the existentialist movement, working with Sartre on Les Temps Mordernes. The author of several books including The Mandarins (1957) which was awarded the Prix Goncourt, de Beauvoir was one of the most influential thinkers of her generation. She died in 1986.